Whitsunday Adventure, Whitehaven Beach!

Thank god I had booked the flex fare ticket. I probably ended up changing my flight at least 3 times. I had spontaneously booked one of the many Greyhound buses going South to make my way to Whitehaven Beach for my whitsunday adventure; 10 hrs. one-way sound worse than they actually were.

Getting to Airlie Beach

I stayed at Base Airlie Beach Hostel. Hostels in Australia are very different compared to hostels in Asia. In Asia, it’s all about cute designs, safety, and cleanliness. In Australia, it’s all about hosting as many travelers (lots of Germans ugh!) as possible with as little service as possible for 4 times the price. Yeah well, I knew what to expect…what was new though was that I had to line up to get cutlery and plates from the reception when I wanted to eat. I didn’t engage in the typical ‘Going-wild-partying’ and instead chose to grab some dinner from a local store, sit at the beach in peace and give myself some time to process what I had experienced the past weeks. One should never underestimate how satisfying these moments can be when you just focus on yourself and how essential they can become on your solo travels for your self-development.

Whitsunday Adventure Day Trip

I was only here for 2 full days and was going to make the most of each minute. 20 hrs. travel time in exchange for 2 more days of experience sounds about right…who knows me knows that time and distance is never an issue for me…I’d make anything work. I had booked my whitsunday adventure with a sailing boat last minute. Beware who you book with and double-check with the operator that the booking when through. When I got to the pier in the morning my booking had mysteriously disappeared and the boat wasn’t going to take me on board. They hadn’t checked their booking e-mails and were desperately apologizing to me. You can’t be serious? I only came down here so I could see the Whitsundays, people! I had become a pro in keeping calm no matter what happened on my trip but this situation really got to me. Calling around to get me on another boat didn’t get us anywhere since they were all booked plus the last thing I wanted was boarding one of the booze boats. When I was really close to giving up on it the lady received a call that I could get a spot on a speedboat with ‘Ocean Rafting’ instead. Hmm, I had really looked forward to the sailing boat experience and now I would go with a speedboat? Hell yes, I would go with a speedboat! What a ride, what a day!

We left from Airlie Beach, made the big loop around Hook Island where we stopped for some snorkeling and a date with a shark, before heading to the infamous Whitehaven Beach. Words can’t describe the spotless beauty of nature. We spent the whole day in the National Park stopping for a number of snorkeling spots and speeding with the boat. My inner nature conservationist didn’t like the idea of a noisy speedboat disturbing marine life but my inner child was screaming out of joy (Uh I love speed!). Plus the advantage of the smaller boat was that it would take us to the smaller beaches. The beaches are very unique since the sand is 99% quartz sand which is commonly referred to as “Champagne Sand”. All in all this day was so worth the trip down here…and I even took a big fat sunburn with me as a souvenir.

 

~ Off to an authentic Brisbane weekend ~